Saturday, October 14, 2006

Possible Thylacine Spotted?

UPDATE: March 2, 2007 - German Tourist Vows to Film an Australian Tiger

Did another 'Down Under' vacationer snap a photograph of a thylacine? Shortly before his death, Steve Irwin claimed that he had taken photos of a Thylacine in the wild. There have been other claims of sightings the past few years including this recent account.



Comments from a recent posting: A friend of mine went on vacation to Australia, and he e-mailed me this picture a week ago- he said he snapped a picture as soon as he saw the animal, and the flash made it run away.. He said it was small, like a puppy, and it ran akwardly towards a larger "striped German-shephard /Kangaroo thing", and they both disappeared into the brush.

He called it a "Striped Puppy Kangaroo Thing", and he sent it to me because I used to be a vet tech and can ID almost any animal, and am especially good with dog breeds. I think he may have seen 2 Thylacines, but it’s not a good picture. He took one as they were running off, too, but you can’t see anything in it except bushes and the night sky. When he showed me the picture, I told him I thought they may be Tassie Tigers, and that he should tell someone.I also told him to hold on to his pictures since in my research I read that sometimes when people report sightings park rangers confiscate their evidence. He wrote me the next day saying that everyone he talked to told him he didn’t see a Tassie Tiger, and he said a policeman he mentioned it to threatened to take him in for pranking. When he told the cop it wasn’t a prank, the cop told him "You didn’t see anything, understood?"

I’ve known this boy forever, and he is always honest (brutally so, at times)

What do you think?

He finally ok’d me to share it, but he wants his identity to remain private. He was very offended by the people in Tasmania calling him a liar, and the cop shook him up pretty bad. He seems convinced that that cop will track him down, the poor guy

Anywho, it’d be nice to find out what other people think of this…

I think it’s damn convincing. Aside from the damn plant in the way, I’d say I’m convinced. The number of stripes is variable, from what I’ve read, and this is also a pup, as he said.. I can’t find any info on patterns of pups- does anyone else have info?

If anyone is out there who maybe has equipment to maybe edit out the plants or something, that would be great

By the way- He said he was hiking near "Savage River" when he took this photo, and that it was not far from a wildlife preserve or park of some sort, yet he was also not far from all sorts of factories and mining operations…

If this truly is a Tassie, then that’s also a horrible place for some polluting, disgusting mines.